Rethinking Technology, Revitalizing Ethics: Overcoming Barriers to Ethical Design

Science and Engineering Ethics

Volumn 6, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 207-220

  Feng, Patrick ^a,b  

^a RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE   (United States)

^b Sci Technol Studs Dept R   (United States)

Author keywords

Design; Ethics; Participatory design; Privacy; Technology

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; ETHICS; HUMAN; TECHNOLOGY;

ETHICS; HUMANS; TECHNOLOGY;

EID: 0034173286     PISSN: 13533452     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s11948-000-0049-4     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. Winner describes how we have become proficient at assessing the impact of new technologies, but only after they have become ingrained in society: "After the bulldozer has rolled over us, we can pick ourselves up and carefully measure the treadmarks." Unfortunately, we have been less proficient at keeping "the bulldozer" in check. See Winner, L. (1986) The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, p. 10.
2. For a somber second reading of the information revolution, see Stoll, C. (1995) Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway, Doubleday, New York.
3. Equifax (1995) The 1995 Equifax-Harris mid-decade consumer privacy survey, available at http://www.equifax.com/consumer/parchive/svry95/survy95a.html
4. The world according to Andy Grove (1994) Business Week: The Information Revolution (Special Issue), 76-78.
5. Winner, L. (1977) Autonomous Technology: Technics Out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. The term autonomous can be interpreted in a number of ways, from being strongly deterministic ("technology is uncontrollable") to only mildly so ("technology evolves but we can still influence its development"). In this paper I use autonomous in its stronger sense. For more on ideas of autonomous technology and technological determinism, see Smith, M.R. & Marx, L. (eds) (1994) Does Technology Drive History? The Dilemma of Technological Determinism, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
6. Winner, L. (1977) Autonomous Technology: Technics Out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. The term autonomous can be interpreted in a number of ways, from being strongly deterministic ("technology is uncontrollable") to only mildly so ("technology evolves but we can still influence its development"). In this paper I use autonomous in its stronger sense. For more on ideas of autonomous technology and technological determinism, see Smith, M.R. & Marx, L. (eds) (1994) Does Technology Drive History? The Dilemma of Technological Determinism, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
7. Winner, L. (23 November 1997) How technomania is overtaking the millennium. Newsday, B6.
8. Technology makes us better (editorial) (28 September 1997) New York Times Magazine, 45; Toffler, A. (1991) Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century, Bantam Books, New York.
9. Technology makes us better (editorial) (28 September 1997) New York Times Magazine, 45; Toffler, A. (1991) Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century, Bantam Books, New York.
10. Marsh, A. (22 September 1997) No place to hide. Forbes, 226; Taylor and Jerome (October 1997) We know where you live. PC Computing, 91.
11. Marsh, A. (22 September 1997) No place to hide. Forbes, 226; Taylor and Jerome (October 1997) We know where you live. PC Computing, 91.
12. Johnson, D. (September 1997) Is the global information infrastructure a democratic technology? Computers and Society, 20-26.
13. See, for example, CYBERsitter: where do we not want you to go today? at the Peacefire web site: http://www.peacefire.org/censorware/CYBERsitter
14. Lessig, L. (1999) Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Basic Books, New York.
15. Sarewitz, D. (1996) Frontiers of Illusion: Science, Technology, and the Politics of Progress, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, p. 142.
16. This theory is closely related to the idea of autonomous technology, though in a slightly different guise. It also is clearly related to Western ideals of progress and economic efficiency.
17. See, e.g., Meeks, B. N. (1997) "Better democracy through technology," Communications of the ACM 40,2: 75-78; Grossman, L. K. (1995) The electronic republic: Reshaping democracy in the information age. Penguin Books, New York.
18. See, e.g., Meeks, B. N. (1997) "Better democracy through technology," Communications of the ACM 40,2: 75-78; Grossman, L. K. (1995) The electronic republic: Reshaping democracy in the information age. Penguin Books, New York.
19. Bijker, W.E., Hughes, T.P. & Pinch, T. (eds) (1987) The Social Construction of Technological Systems, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
20. Van Lente, H. and Rip, A. (1999) Expectations in technological developments: An example of prospective structures to be filled in by agency, in: Disco, C. and van der Meulen, B. (eds.) Getting new technologies together: Studies in making sociotechnical order, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 203-229.
21. 15 pp. 17-50.
22. David, P.A. (1985) Clio and the economics of QWERTY. American Economic Review 72, 2: 332-337: Hughes, T.P. (1987) The Evolution of Large Technological Systems, in: Bijker et al. (eds) (1987),15 pp. 51-82.
23. David, P.A. (1985) Clio and the economics of QWERTY. American Economic Review 72, 2: 332-337: Hughes, T.P. (1987) The Evolution of Large Technological Systems, in: Bijker et al. (eds) (1987),15 pp. 51-82.
24. Dowie, M. (September/October 1977) Pinto madness. Mother Jones, 18-32.
25. Hibbert, C. (1999) Some frequently asked questions on SSNs, available at http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/ssn/ssn.faq.html; Regan, P. (1995) Legislating Privacy: Technology, Social Values, and Public Policy, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.
26. Hibbert, C. (1999) Some frequently asked questions on SSNs, available at http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/ssn/ssn.faq.html; Regan, P. (1995) Legislating Privacy: Technology, Social Values, and Public Policy, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.
27. I found only one newspaper article that reported on privacy issues related to highway 407 during the period of its construction; see Gooderham, M. (18 March 1995) Privacy at risk in toll systems, drivers told, The Globe and Mail, A4.
28. Bloomfield, B.P. & Vurdubakis, T. (1997) Boundary disputes: negotiating the boundary between the technical and the social in the development of IT systems, Information Technology & People 7/1: 9-24; Star, S.L. (ed) (1995) Ecologies of Knowledge: Work and Politics in Science and Technology, SUNY Press, Albany, NY.
29. Bloomfield, B.P. & Vurdubakis, T. (1997) Boundary disputes: negotiating the boundary between the technical and the social in the development of IT systems, Information Technology & People 7/1: 9-24; Star, S.L. (ed) (1995) Ecologies of Knowledge: Work and Politics in Science and Technology, SUNY Press, Albany, NY.
30. I use the term ethicists here as shorthand for anyone with social and ethical concerns relevant to the design of technology, including artists, philosophers, scientists, social critics, religious leaders, and "ordinary citizens."
31. Schuler, D. & Namioka, A. (eds) (1993) Participatory Design: Principles and Practices, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale. NJ. p. xi.
32. Greenbaum, J. & Kyng, M. (1991) Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ.
33. See Sclove, R.E. (1995) Democracy and Technology, Guilford Press, New York. The STS department at Rensselaer has launched a number of educational initiatives to bring values explicitly into the design of technology; see, for example, the new Product, Design, and Innovation undergraduate program at http://www.rpi.edu/dept/sts/pdi/index.html
34. See Sclove, R.E. (1995) Democracy and Technology, Guilford Press, New York. The STS department at Rensselaer has launched a number of educational initiatives to bring values explicitly into the design of technology; see, for example, the new Product, Design, and Innovation undergraduate program at http://www.rpi.edu/dept/sts/pdi/index.html